Progressive mesh compression is the encoding of mesh geometry in stages with each stage generating an improved precision related to mesh connectivity, positions, and other attributes. As each stage results in a better level of detail (LOD) of the compressed model, encoding of the next level takes advantage of the information already contained in the previous level. This is relevant for transmitting high resolution models via the Internet as the user on the receiving end (e.g., a client, a client device, or an application) does not have to wait until the entire model is received from the server. The client can quickly display lower resolution levels of the model before all the information is received at the client device.